


Glitchrune

by DarkTsubaki



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Glitchtale - Fandom
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2020-02-29 02:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 18,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18769408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkTsubaki/pseuds/DarkTsubaki
Summary: After Betty's war against the Monsters has been decided, she finds her way into the gateway to a mysterious new world, inhabited by strange creatures that are neither Monsters, nor Humans. There, she meets new friends and new enemies, and sets out on an adventure of her very own - where she would perhaps learn the meaning of love and friendship.





	1. The Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The "Bete Noire" has succeeded her mission of wiping out Monster kind. However, she is soon to learn that accomplishing one's purpose has its cost. Eventually comes the time where, under normal circumstances, the story of "Deltarune" would begin...

I... Won.

It doesn't feel like it now, but I won. I managed to kill that pesky human, Chara, and absorb their soul. I managed to wipe out the Monsters, just like I was always meant to...

And then what? I've fulfilled the purpose of my creation. Since Asriel had no further use, I drained his soul dry and destroyed it as well. And just like I wanted, the humans had to bow to my will, or die... But what would I do with them? For my entire life, I had but one goal: To eradicate the Monsters. And now that was done, I had no goal anymore.

Since then, I haven't been doing too much. I haven't had the motivation to go beyond the ruins of the city; Most of the humans were already dead, and the ones who weren't, simply ran. I've already absorbed the pink slime creatures I've created - like Asriel, I had no use for them anymore. How long ago was that? Months? Years? I've lost count.

I slowly walk into the destroyed school. I know I won't find anything there; it's pointless, like everything else I do. The classrooms and the corridors are littered with the dust of Monsters and the rotten corpses of Humans. I let my legs go wherever they want; everywhere else is in the same condition. And then... I see dim, purple light coming from one of the corridors.

The city has ran out of electricity long ago. What could be causing that light this late at night? It doesn't look like light from a lightbulb, either. I slowly start to walk towards the corridor the light is coming from. It seems to be coming from an open closet. Strange, I could swear this closet was closed. I transform both my hands into swords, in case something dangerous is inside, and step in.

The inside of the closet is completely dark. I can't see anything, other than some papers littered around the floor. Even stranger, I can't see the floor. "Hello?" I look around. "Who's there? Identify yourself!"

**But nobody came.**

Unable to see the wall on the far end, I start to walk ahead. After getting past the papers, I can't see anything else. I decide to continue walking forward - there is no inner wall in sight. The room seems to be far too large for the inside of a closet.

"What the hell  **is** this place?" I ask - of course, there's no answer. "Well... It seems like walking further in won't do any more good. I'm gonna get a torch, or something."

I walk back on my steps, returning to the familiar paper-littered floor before the door. I prepare to go out - when suddenly, the door closes. "What?!" I rush to the door, swinging my arm in an attempt to break it. My arm simply passes through the space where a moment ago was an entrance. "The door... Disappeared?!" I gasp. "What's going on!? Let me -"

Suddenly, the papers I stand on start shaking. "What the hell?" I manage to say, before the papers start to fall, as if the floor just vanished like the door. I start to run away from the papers...

And the floor beneath my legs disappears, leaving my body to fall into the abyss.


	2. Cliffs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After falling into the strange closet, Betty awakens in a place unknown - and with an old friend alongside her. What new adventures may befall on the one who used to be the bane of Monster kind?

I struggle to open my eyes. Am I... Alive? Where am I? Just like before, all I see is the blinding darkness, and a cold stone floor below me. As my vision starts to clear, I notice this floor is a platform only a few meters long.

I start to get up and look at my own body. I look different - instead of my plain shirt and pants, I'm now wearing an orange-golden armor. My own hair seems to be on the same color, and on the floor below me, there's a small orange-gold puddle.

I gasp and back off as a pair of eyes and a mouth appear on the puddle. It then seems to gather itself up into a small, floating orb.

"K-Kumu?!" I ask, confused. What have caused us to separate again? Why are my clothes and colors different? I have so many questions. But I must also admit that I missed Kumu.

My other half shakes its head - it's about as clueless as I am. "Well... Let's go, Kumu." I start to walk towards the thin bridge extending from the platform.

The cliffs seem to extend a long distance. We can't see anything other than those cliffs - with no other choice, we start walking along them. It's eerily quiet; we can hear nothing but my own footsteps.

After some time walking, I see a nearby cliff detached from the one we're walking on. On it is a strange plant that seems to be nothing more than a ball on a stick. There are several more of these along the way. Each one wobbles at us as we walk past it.

A short distance from the plants, a section of the cliff extends higher than the one we're standing on. There are more plants on top of it - the walls have holes that ooze a strange black substance. HATE? No, that can't be it.

For a second, I think I see a figure standing on the wall. When I look again, it's gone. On the wall is carved a strange eye symbol. Perhaps we will find out its meaning later.

We continue to walk until we reach what looks at first like a dead end. However, there's a short slide leading to a lower platform. We jump down the slide and land unharmed. On another nearby cliff, there's a large puff of powder, with some specks being carried away with the wind. Whatever this place is, apparently it's large enough to have winds.

The path splits. We continue down - a dead end. Only a wall with another pile of powder and two plants awaits us. There's a hole on the side of the wall, with something glowing inside. Kumu reaches out and grabs it - the object reveals to be a small, shimmering crystal shard. Kumu swallows it, and I go back to the crossroad and continue to the left. There's another wall on the side of the path, with an oozing hole and two eye symbols arranged in a way that could resemble a face. The eyes ooze the same substance as the hole.

We progress. There's another wobbly plant above us, but this one is black and has a red outline. As it starts to wobble when we approach it, it flings three seeds towards me and Kumu. We dodge and continue - there are several more of those things on the way. We dodge all of them.

After we get past the plants, we see a gap in the cliff. Next to the gap is a wall with three eye symbols, below each one are painted three circles, with some of them empty and some full. Below the circles are holes that contain glowing buttons. A short distance from that wall is a smaller wall with a sign on it, reading:  **In this land, only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way...**

Kumu and I take a closer look at the eye symbols. The three circles below the rightmost eye are painted right to left: full, empty, full. The ones in the middle are painted full, full, empty. The ones on the left are pained empty, empty, full. Kumu and I look at each other. It's not like we have anything to lose anyway.

Kumu clicks on the button in the middle. The middle and right eye symbols instantly become overshadowed with the black substance. "Hmm..." I whisper. "In this land, only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way."

Suddenly, I smirk and move to the leftmost button and press it. The left eye runs black, making all three eyes overshadowed. Once this happens, a glass bridge appears, allowing me to walk to the next cliff.

We advance into a significantly larger cliff with at least three "layers". We seem to be on the middle layer, and use a slide to get to the lowest one. There are several more puffs of powder there. I try to touch one and it dissipates, revealing a hard chunk of rock in the center. On a closer look, the weird puffs seem like they're breathing. One of them seems to be blocking our way - Kumu pops it, and I swipe the rock and the leftover powder into the abyss. The noise that's usually heard when an object hits the ground from a long height is absent.

We progress. There are large chunks of rock protruding in the distance, and another, taller "wall" with an eye symbol on it. Looking up, we see a small figure standing on the top.

Kumu turns into an ax. "Who's there?!" I ask. Instead of answering, the figure waves its hand, and floating spade-shaped projectiles appear, thrown at us. We start to dodge; it's not hard. I weigh my possibilities. Kumu could turn into a boot and allow me to leap at this person, but that would most likely destroy the cliff we stand on and we'll risk falling to our deaths if we miss.

We nod at each other. Our best option is to run away. As we run, more of those spade bullets rain down on us. Kumu turns into a gold umbrella to defend me as we keep running. Eventually, we reach another, larger slide - as we move down the slide, more spades appear from the sides and are launched at us. Using Kumu to propel me, I start to dodge the bullets. We continuously move faster and faster down the slide, our vision becomes blurred due to sheer speed, until we hit the ground in a crush.


	3. Lonely Prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After managing to escape by their skin of their teeth, Betty and Kumu appear in a strange town that looks empty - other than one person who claims to be their new friend and ally, and will perhaps tell them more about the world they've found themselves in.

"...Are you alright?" I ask Kumu, who was again reduced to a puddle on the floor. My body doesn't look injured. If I could feel pain, I'm willing to bet I wouldn't be able to even speak.

Kumu starts to get up, giving me a tendril and helping me get up. We seem to be on the bottom of the cliff, on a pitch-black floor. We start walking again, and see before us a pathway, surrounded by walls and small houses. This looks to be the entrance of a small town. "We don't know who lives here..." I whisper to Kumu. "Act normal." Kumu nods and turns into a small flower in my hair.

We walk through the gates into the town. The four largest buildings, also the closest to the road, have signs on them as if they were shops, but all of them are locked. Walking a bit further, there's a city square surrounded by small houses, and above it I can see a castle in the distance. I can prominently see a pillar of strange black liquid - like the one oozing from the holes - firing perpatually into the empty sky. Ready to summon my spear, I slowly walk towards the castle.

The door of the castle is open. a staircase leads me to an entrance room - before I can walk in, a voice echoes:  **Welcome, heroes...!**

I freeze in place. "Who's there?"

 **Do not be alarmed...** Says the voice.  **I am not your enemy. Please come forward, both of you...**

Does this person know about Kumu? I won't risk revealing it to them if they don't. I cautiously walk forward. In the room, a symbol is prominent on the floor - the symbol of the Monsters. Across from it stands a hooded figure, behind it a closed door.

Is this a Monster? I try to look into the figure's soul... This isn't a Monster soul, nor a Human soul. This soul is empty - not in that it's devoid of thoughts and feelings, but it is literally an empty white-and-red frame of a heart. It is not upside down like a Monster's soul, and I can't seem to read it; it's like trying to read a book in a language you don't understand.

Seeing me, the figure backs away. "You're... Not Kris."

"Kris?" I ask, trying not to sound suspicious.

The figure looks haunted. "Perhaps I should explain myself..."

"Please do."

The figure takes a deep breath. "I am the  _Prince_ of this  _Kingdom_... The  _KINGDOM OF DARKNESS_. I've anticipated the coming of two prophesized heroes coming from the world above; their names were Kris and Susie. I never thought someone else would arrive here before them..."

I think out my response for a moment. "I've learned the hard way that you shouldn't trust a prophecy. Perhaps the one you've heard could have been wrong... Or maybe," I say with an encouraging smile, "it was mistaken about the identities and names of its heroes."

"Well... After all, you  **are** a Human, aren't you? Maybe you aren't wrong. But, the prophecy has told that two heroes of light will arrive... A Human, and a Monster. Could there have been someone else with you, when you arrived in this world?"

So this person thinks I'm a Human? Well, at the very least, it means he doesn't know what I really am. While I was created in the image of a Human, I have borrowed several traits from Monsters, as well... I start to form an idea. I won't like it, but it seems like the only option.

"I actually have a Monster here, with me..." I reluctantly say, pointing at the flower in my hair. "My name is Betty. This is my trusted companion, Akumu. It  **could** be that we are the heroes your prophecy has spoken of..." As I speak, Kumu leaves my hair and transforms back into its natural blob form.

The hooded figure is silent for several seconds. "Maybe... Our ancient texts didn't do as great a job describing the Lightners as I thought." It says eventually. "Maybe the two of you were really brought here by destiny to fulfill the prophecy, foretold by time and space. If you are the heroes, then you should hear it, first."

"Go ahead and tell us, then." I say. The figure seems to be mentally preparing, like a school student who has practiced reading something out loud for the whole year. "Very well then..."

**Once upon a time, a LEGEND was whispered among shadows.**

**A LEGEND of HOPES. Of DREAMS.**

**Of LIGHT. And DARK.**

**This is the legend of**

**DELTARUNE**


	4. The Legend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prince in the hood tells Betty and Akumu the first bits of knowledge about the mysterious Kingdom of Darkness. Will Betty be a sufficient replacement for the heroes of light? Or was the legend wrong altogether?

**For millenia, LIGHT and DARK have lived in balance,**

**Bringing peace to the WORLD.**

**But if this harmony were to shatter...**

**A terrible calamity would occur.**

**The sky will run black with terror**

**And the land will crack with fear.**

**Then, her heart pounding...**

**The EARTH will draw her final breath.**

**Only then, shining with hope...**

**Three HEROES appear at WORLD's edge.**

**A HUMAN,**

**A MONSTER,**

**And a PRINCE FROM THE DARK.**

**Only they can seal the fountains**

**And banish the ANGEL'S HEAVEN.**

**Only then will balance be restored,**

**And the WORLD saved from destruction.**

**Today, the FOUNTAIN OF DARKNESS-**

**The geyser that gives this land form-**

**Stands tall at the center of the kingdom.**

**But recently, another fountain has appeared on the horizon...**

**And with it, the balance of LIGHT and DARK begins to shift...**

"Betty, Akumu... Thank you for listening to my long tale. I truly hope you two are the  _HEROES_ of the  _LEGEND_. That despite whatever enemies you may face... You two have the  _COURAGE_ to  _SAVE THE WORLD_.  _DELTA WARRIORS_! Please, won't you accept your destiny...?"

I have already fulfilled my destiny... But finding myself a new one, even if it's not my own, sounds tempting. "...Yes." I say eventually. Kumu nods. "We accept."

"Then it has been decided." Says the prince. "You and I shall be the ones who will restore the balance and save the world. Everything hangs in the balance, so let us begin our quest."

Suddenly, a crazed laughter is heard from the distance. Kumu and I turn to look at the source... But before we do, a motorcycle suddenly rushes into the prince and explodes.


	5. Lancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Delta Warriors meet their first enemy! The identity of the mysterious figure from the cliffs is revealed, and he seems interested in intercepting the prince's goals. The first battle is about to begin.

In the place of the prince in the hood now stands the same figure Kumu and I saw in the cliffs earlier, riding a... Motorcycle? This looks like a regular bicycle with an exhaust pipe. We can now see him clearly: it is a small, rotund black, blue and white creature with a teardrop-shaped head and a spade symbol on his chest. The upper half of his face consists of a large black spade, and below it is a large mouth with a blue tongue sticking from it. He looks at me and Kumu and laughs maniacally.

"Ho ho ho!" He laughs. "One nerd down, two to go! My dad's gonna make me Son of the Month!"

I look at him with a straight face. "And you are...?"

"I'm...!" He spins on his bike. "The bad guy."

"You? A bad guy?" I ask. This kid doesn't look intimidating compared to the "bad guys" I've faced on the Surface World.

"You know. Teardrop-headed kid. From the legend?" He asks.

"Does the legend say what the bad guy will look like?" I ask sarcastically.

"Aw boy. This is going to be hard to explain."

"Umm... I could help explain it...!" The hooded prince says, apparently having recovered.

"Stay out of this, kindboy!" The self-proclaimed "bad guy" yells at him.

"No! I'll protect the heroes with my life!" The prince lashes back.

"Well, right now he's just trying to explain something. You could let him." I say politely. The prince backs off.

"OK, so long story short." The bad guy starts. "You guys are heroes. You wanna go EAST, and seal our DARK FOUNTAIN. That'll stop darkness from covering the world. We, on the other hand, don't want that, because: It would rule, and be great."

"So you  **don't** want something to happen... Because it would be great?" I ask confused.

"Uhh... I dunno... I guess I could go ask my dad?"

"I could tell you!" The prince rushes in again.

"Huh... Nevermind. That was just bad wording," I try to get the conversation back on track. "So you want to stop us, right?"

"Correct-a-mundo!"

"So  _now_ might be the time to step in, prince!"

"Alright!" The prince says, taking off his hood - revealing pastel-green robes and a hat, a magenta scarf, and a pair of glasses. The hat casts a shadow that hides his face, which seems to resemble a goat head - much like the royal family of Monsters I killed. Is there a connection between them? I feel like it's too early to determine.

 I try to look into the enemy's soul; it has the same appearance as the prince's. After talking to them for a few minutes, I'm already starting to get better at "reading" them, though this works about as well as as a Human's "Check" ability. At least now I know his name is Lancer.

"Halt, clowns!" Lancer exclaims. "This bike is fueled by victory!!" He then tries to violently dash at me, and I quickly dodge. He doesn't seem too strong - I should be able to defeat him without Kumu or my spear.

The prince stands by our side and seems not to do anything. "A little help, please?" I ask him.

"W-what should I do?" He asks, while Lancer tries to dash at Kumu. Once Kumu dodges, Lancer begins to run his bike across the room, throwing spade-bullets at us.

"What do you think?!" I yell in disbelief. "Just... Throw a fireball at him or something!"

"O-OK!" The prince says, panicked, as he conjures a fireball in his hand and throws it at Lancer, who is a little thrown back. "I love to get thrashed..." He laughs. "Just kidding! That's you!!" He says, before dashing again.

"Let me show you how much I love getting thrashed!" I shout before punching Lancer in the face, making him fall off his bike and start bouncing off the floor before he hits the wall.

"Owww... That hurt." Lancer says, slowly getting up. "Alright, you punk-a-roos!" He exclaims angrily. "You had the luck of the draw this time, but... Next time, the losers will be YOU!!! Hahaha!!! Bye, losers!! I gotta get home before dinner!!!" He exclaims, before getting back on his bike and quickly traveling away.

"Wow, you're so strong!!" The prince exclaims, then coughs politely. "Um, allow me to introduce myself more properly. I am Ralsei, and in this quest, I will be your guide."


	6. Empty Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralsei, the Prince from the Dark, reveals his identity to Betty and Akumu. With Lancer out of the way, the three - or rather the two - can go more in-depth into their conversation... And Betty could learn she and Ralsei have more in common than she thinks.

**Ralsei... Asriel.**

The more I delve in, the stranger it becomes. What is the nature of this prince's similarity to the prince of the Monsters? Did I appear in some sort of parallel world caused by the "Glitches" the humans kept mentioning?

"Betty, Akumu... It's ever so wonderful to meet you! I'm certain we're going to become great friends, and with our power combined, no one can stop us!"

"Don't be so sure about the _friends_ part..." I say quietly. "I'm... Not a great friend."

Ralsei moves to stand in front of me. "Betty, I'm a  _PRINCE_ , but... I, um, currently don't have any subjects."

Of course, that would sound suspicious at first, but I know quite a bit more about princes than the Humans in present day. Other than the son of a monarch, a "prince" could also mean a local ruler of a small territory that is part of a larger kingdom. And in this context, he seems to mean that his subjects have either abandoned his town or died.

"I've been waiting alone here... Um... My whole life for you two to arrive. So... I'm really happy to meet the two of you. I hope we can be good friends, Betty and Akumu."

I already understand these "Darkners" have a strange way to speak. Why wouldn't they? They appear to have been separated from the Surface for long enough to have been completely forgotten when I was created 300 years ago. There might be more to it, but "my whole life" could loosely mean his  **adult** life.

I may have more to ask him later, but in the meantime I'll wait. Ralsei walks up behind me and Kumu and says "You can lead the way, Betty!"

I simply nod, walking down the stairs and back to the town. Quickly returning to the entrance I've come from, I walk to the other way into a large courtyard.

In the courtyard, awaits a dummy resembling Ralsei. "Oh, Betty!" Ralsei says. "It's the training dummy I made! Now seems like a great chance to prepare for the enemy. Would you like me to teach you how to fight?"

"Uhh, we just now fought Lancer. It looks to me like we're better at fighting than you are."

Ralsei looks away. "I mean, you're not wrong... But in this world, there's more to fighting than just dodging and punching. I think it's worth a lesson."

"Guess you're right," I say. "Well, let's see what you've got."

Me and Ralsei stand in front of the dummy. Kumu changes into his favorite weapon form, a scythe, and I grab him.

"Wow, Lightners can do that?" Ralsei's eyes shine. "It's amazing!"

"Uh, thanks!" I say, a little embarrassed. "Well, why won't we begin the training?"

"Oh, right!" Ralsei says, trying to focus. "First, I'll teach you how to  _FIGHT_. Though  _FIGHTing_ is unnecessary in this world... There's no harm in a thourough lesson! Let's try FIGHTing!"

"Got it!" I say, swinging Kumu in a wide arc and cutting the dummy in half.

"I - uhm..." Ralsei looks terrified.

"O-oh no, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to attack it with this much force, this dummy was probably lighter than I thought, maybe I shouldn't use Kumu in thi -"

"It's okay." Says Ralsei. "I'm not mad." Suddenly, he cheerfully leaps into the air. "In fact, that was a _SUPER COOL_ swing!" He starts babbling: "So cool! Have you used him as a scythe before? Astounding! Such a perfect curve! Like a real knight!"

"E-eh...? N-no one has ever complimented me for violent behavior before..." I whisper under my breath. Kumu returns to his natural blob form.

Ralsei breathes in trying to relax. "That was wonderful, you two! But... Now that you destroyed the dummy, we kinda... Can't keep training. I guess that's not so bad though, I'm sure you can pick up the rest along the way. Oh! Also, I got this manual!" He hands me a hand-made notebook.

"Uh, thanks! I'll be sure to give it a read if I want to." I give the manual to Kumu, who swallows it. "Don't worry, Kumu can store things inside his body. Your manual will be alright."

"You Lightners get cooler the more I learn about you!" Ralsei beams. Then, we proceed to the next room. There, a large open door awaits us. "Oh my!" Ralsei gasps. "The Great Door is opened?! No wonder Lancer was able to come through..." He turns to me. "Betty, Kumu, once we pass through this door... Our adventure will really begin. A journey foretold exactly by the prophecy... But now I'm not sure how accurate it was. So I truly believe your choices matter... This world is full of all kinds of people, Betty and Kumu. In the end, how we treat them makes all the difference. So let's try our best to get by without FIGHTing. If we can manage to do that... I believe this tale may have a happy ending. Otherwise, I fear that... You may not... Find the result favorable."

"I'm not sure about that."

"...Oh, I'm sorry! Is that too much to ask?"

"...Yes."

"Betty, Kumu, I knew you two were heroes the moment I saw you. Let's try our best, alright?"

For a moment, I stand silent. So does Kumu. Then I ask: "Ralsei... You said you were waiting for us your whole life, right?"

"Well, yes."

"So your whole life's purpose has always been to bring balance and fulfill the prophecy?"

Ralsei looks nervous. "I... Never thought of it that way, but... I guess you could say that."

I lay a hand on Ralsei's shoulder. The upper section of my face is shadowed. I struggle not to let tears escape my eyes. "Ralsei... After this is all over - after the prophecy has been fulfilled - do you know what you'll do then? Do you know how you'll go on after the mission you lived for is accomplished?"

Ralsei backs away. "I... I don't know. I never thought I'd get this far... But, I guess I could just settle living a normal life in the kingdom, when I no longer have the duty to restore the order."

While this sounds like the most logical thing to do, for me, this isn't an option. "Well... Alright then." Forcing a smile, I turn around and exit through the ornate golden door. Ralsei enters after me, and closes the gate behind us.


	7. Field of Hopes and Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The adventure begins! Betty and Ralsei go out into the Dark World's lands and begin to advance towards their destination far away. As they begin to encounter enemies, Betty starts to show her less heroic side, beginning to repeat a process that only Frisk was supposed to be able to go through.

Beyond the door is a path of purple grass, surrounded by autumn trees. Kumu, me and Ralsei go down the path, beginning to explore the area. Before long, we see a sign reading:  _Enemies ahead! You're gonna die! SIGNED, LANCER_.

"Better be ready." Kumu nods, transforming into a golden sword. An enemy stands in our way: a white slug-like Darkner, its body in a diamond pattern in different shades of green, with one arm holding a dagger. Its head and eyes are vaguely diamond-shaped. "Face my diamond cutter!" Exclaims the Darkner, called a Rudinn, as it swings its dagger, creating a barrage of diamond shards. I quickly dodge the attacks, before slashing the Darkner's chest with Kumu, creating a large cut. The Rudinn's body seems to "bleed" the same dark substance from the fountain. Then, its entire body melts and fades away, but its soul and the items it carried are intact; Kumu turns into its natural form and eats it, along with the Darkner's money.

Ralsei looks impressed. "I didn't even know it was possible..." He murmurs. He doesn't continue talking, and I start to advance. The prince walks behind us.

There's another sign past the Rudinn:  _If you're reading this... I guess you're dead. SIGNED, LANCER_. I think about saying something about Rudinn having read the sign, but stop myself.

As we advance a little more, we see Lancer next to another sign that reads:  _Hey! Don't read this sign! It's a work in progress! SIGNED, LANCER_.

"Ho ho ho..." Lancer laughs. "If it isn't my three favorite people. Psyche! You guys aren't even in my top five!"

"Lancer! What are you doing here?!" Ralsei asks him.

"Ho ho ho..." Lancer laughs. You fools! You're too late to stop me...!"

"Are you sure about that?" I say, summoning my spear.

"Nope!" Lancer says, before running away.

"Uh... What's that?" Ralsei asks, looking at the spear.

"My magic weapon?" I say. I know the Humans weren't using magic now as much as they did a hundred years ago, but they at least know what magic weapons are.

"Wow, humans can use magic? That's so cool!" Ralsei looks like he's trying to stay optimistic.

"Well, thank you," I say politely.

Me and Ralsei advance in the direction Lancer ran into. He waits for us, standing a safe distance. "Hey," he says. "If you head that way, my troops will thrash you."

"Is that a threat?" Ralsei asks.

"I prefer to think of it as an invitation." Lancer giggles.

"...Let's go South first." Ralsei says, pointing at the path South.

"I guess." I sigh, and the three of us go down the path. We reach a dead end, in which there's a tree and a sign that reads:  _These types of trees DON'T contain an item that can heal you. Whatever you do, DON'T pick the black fruits off the tree! You got it!? SIGNED, LANCER_.

There are two star-shaped black fruits hanging from the tree. I nod at Kumu, and he flies up and grabs them before going back down.

"Well, looks like we have to get there anyways," I say before turning back and returning to the path where Lancer awaits. Two Rudinns await us there, as promised. "Ralsei, get down!" I yell. Ralsei nods, his scarf expanding to shield his body. Kumu turns into a sickle blade and beheads one of the Rudinns, while I summon my spear again, pin the other Rudinn's soul, and pull it back. Afterwards, Kumu eats the beheaded Rudinn's soul and money and reutns to me, and I give him the other Rudinn's soul and money to eat.

Ralsei lets down his scarf. We keep walking - in the next room, we see a yellow triangular Darkner standing next to a table with a cake on it. Ralsei and I look at him for a moment - he doesn't seem to notice us. We progress.

There's another Rudinn blocking our path, and another Darkner called a Hathy with it - a vaguely octopus-like green creature with a heart-shaped head, wearing a crown and a white robe, standing on three tentacles and using a fourth tentacle to hold a staff with a heart on each end. "Ralsei, attack them!" I tell the prince, as Kumu morphs into a lance connected to my arm.

"Alright!" Ralsei exclaims, his scarf seemingly extending to whip at the Hathy, while I jump at the Rudinn to impale it and take its soul. Unsurprisingly, the Hathy is still alive - it raises its staff, causing energy hearts to appear in a circle around us. We stand ready, but the hearts seem to circle around us for a moment before dissipating. Kumu devours the Rudinn's soul, and then turns into an ax, which I use to cleave the Hathy in half, then grab its money and its soul and feed it to Kumu.

Behind the two Darkners is another Dark Candy tree. Kumu again flies up to grab them, and we continue. In front of us, there are three buttons on the floor before a line of spikes. On a wall are a clock - which seems to not be working - and a sign that reads:  _Check the clock. In order to solve this puzzle, you'll have to hurry_.

"Another puzzle?" I move towards the clock - the hands aren't moving. I poke the clock with my figner, and suddenly, it lights up, its hand starting to turn, as one of the buttons lights up with it. I quickly step on the button, causing the two other buttons to light up; I step on one, and Ralsei steps on the other. The button Ralsei is standing on shuts down, and the unoccupied button lights up - I quickly jump and step on it. The spikes retract, leaving the path open.

There's another sign in front of us:  _Behold, the maze of death! Prepared to GET LOST, clowns!!! SIGNED, LANCER_.

The path in front of us does seem a little more convoluted than before, but it doesn't look remotely like a challenge. The rest of the signs seem to be just Lancer laughing at how lost we must feel, which in reality is nothing. Some enemies resembling living puzzle pieces are in and around the path - all of them run away before me and Ralsei even get close to them.

At the end of the maze, Lancer awaits us. "Ho ho ho!" He laughs. "Somehow, you survived the maze! But don't count on your blessings before they hatch...! Let's see how you fare against THIS team!"

Lancer runs away, and three Hathys appear to replace him. They raise their staffs in unison, causing three rings of hearts to harmlessly surround us. "Hey, why aren't you guys thrashed?!" Lancer rushes in. "You're totally outnumbered!"

"You made a team purely of SUPPORT ENEMIES." Ralsei says. "Their bullet patterns aren't balanced at all. It's like a dinner made out of three glasses of milk."

Lancer is silent for a moment. "...And that's, um... Unusual, somehow?"

"Why don't we talk about this AFTER the battle?" Ralsei asks him. Lancer walks away.

I nod at Kumu, who turns into a giant fist and crushes the first Hathy underneath it, while I rush into the second Hathy and punch a hole in its chest. Ralsei blasts the third Hathy with a fireball, but it survives - the Hathy raises its staff again, surrounding us with a ring in the shape of one hollow heart, which spins around us before rushing to the side. I jump over the heart to dodge it, and Kumu turns into a golden scythe and diagonally cuts the Hathy in half. I feed their souls and money to Kumu and wipe the dark substance off my clothes.

"Great job, Betty and Kumu!" Ralsei says, trying to sound enthusiastic. "We earned 246 EXP and 84 D$!"

"Sweet!" Lancer rushes in again. "How much do I get?"

"You... Lost, Lancer." Ralsei says. "You don't get any."

"Oh." Lancer sounds disappointed. "Can I have some of yours?"

"No!" Me and Ralsei say at the same time.

"Fine! Later, losers!" Lancer says before running away again.

There's another clock puzzle at the next room. This one has six buttons, with up to three lighting up at the same time - Kumu, Ralsei and I start pressing on them, until the buttons clear and a sound resembling a heavy door opening is heard in the distance. An opened door awaits us in the next room.

"Looks like we completed the challenge before we even reached it," I say to Kumu, trying to imitate a casual conversation between us. As the two of us enter the door, followed by Ralsei, I notice a glimpse of a dark substance in Kumu's mouth for a moment. When I look again, it's gone.


	8. Lantern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heroes of the prophecy reach the first stop in their journey - a store belonging to an old man named Seam. Yet another one of the Dark World's dark secrets is about to be revealed.

"Um, Betty, Kumu, I suppose you didn't remember what I said earlier..." Ralsei begins. "As heroes, we have the power to make a peaceful future. So, from now on, let's try to avoid killing, OK?"

I stay silent, honestly baffled. How exactly are we supposed to avoid killing? The path is littered with enemies that clearly want us dead.

"Umm, what if you just took it easy on them...? If you weaken an enemy, I can use my PACIFY spell. Which, can put exhausted people to sleep!"

"I guess you could do that. I'll try not to hit the next enemies  **too** hard." 

"Awesome!" Says Ralsei, and the three of us progress.

In the next room, there's another puzzle piece-looking Darkner on the left, an open road to the right, and a tent made of torn rags and a sign reading "SHOP" in the center. We decide to step into the shop.

Inside the tent is an old Darkner that looks like a living, Human-sized ragdoll of a gray cat, standing on a deck in front of several shelves full of items. "Hee hee..." He says. "Welcome, travellers."

I look into his soul. I can already start reading his memories - especially the memory of a specific place he holds dear to his heart...

"Uh, hello." I say, trying to sound polite. "Who are you?"

"The name's Seam. Pronounced "Shawm." And this is my little Seap. Ha ha ha ha... Over the years, I've collected odds and ends. 'Course, I've no attachment to any of it. It's just a hobby of mine. Around here, you learn to find ways to pass the time... or go mad like everyone else."

"I'm afraid we've already got that covered." I look over at the item shelves and the price list. Nothing me and Kumu have any use for. As for Ralsei, he won't need them either, so long as we've got his back.

"Well, I believe we have no need for your items... But we might have a need for knowledge. More specifically, what exactly is going on in this kingdom..."

Seam nods. "Historically, this land was ruled by the Four Kings, from CARD CASTLE to the East. But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away. The remaining king put him and his strange son into power. This land hasn't seen THIS much chaos since... Ha ha ha... Well, you don't need to know about THAT."

By now, I'm already used to the Darkner's strange speech. He probably got mixed up in saying that "he" - the knight - put the remaining king and his strange son into power. I decide not to ask him about "that" - he probably won't answer. Perhaps I might return here later and look for the answer directly in his soul.

I try to think of a way to make my next question less suspicious. "So, recently, we've heard a lot of people talk about those beings called... Lightners... Could you tell us about them?"

"Long ago, the Darkners lived in harmony with the Lightners. They were like Gods to us. Our protectors. Our creators. Those who gave us purpose... Then, one day we were all locked away in this prison... And the Lightners never returned. Embittered, the King took up arms, and aims to take revenge upon the Lightners that left us behind. 'Course, even among his troops, some still distantly hope the Lightners will return..."

That would explain a couple of things. In this strange world, could I be considered a "Lightner"? The word seems to encompass both Humans and Monsters, but I'm neither. Regardless, they seem to  **think** I am one of the Lightners, and that alone could already help. My fallen enemies from the Surface would probably believe I would be delighted at the thought of being worshiped like a Goddess, but the only thing I see myself do with this is get a few of those Darkners to help me without question. This also explains, though not fully, the way Ralsei is acting towards me.

I lower my voice. "Perhaps that would be the point where I could tell you... Me, and my friend here -" I point at Kumu - "We  **are** Lightners. Us, along with this boy -" I point at Ralsei - "are the ones believed to be the chosen heroes who will restore the balance and save the world. Do what you will with that information."

"Ha ha ha... So you are the "heroes" who are going to seal our Fountain? Ha, good luck. It makes no difference to me. Neither Light nor Dark hold a future for a Darkner in my condition."

Is Seam referring to his torn old body? Probably. I look at Kumu, then at Ralsei, then back at Seam. "Well, that was not my intent either way. As I said before, I don't believe anything in your shop would be valuable to someone like us. Thank you, Seam, and goodbye."

Then, the three of us get up and leave the shop. As we exit, Seam laughs: "See you again... Or not. Ha ha ha ha..."

No longer paying attention, we leave. I feel a little more equipped to deal with the world I've found myself in. I feel a weight in my stomach... Well, Kumu's stomach. This is the feeling from the countless Human and Monster souls that we've captured, drained dry, and shattered; now the sentience of the souls is gone, but their knowledge, skill, power and abilities are now mine. Perhaps the two of us can put them to use with their weak attacks to weaken the Darkners without killing them. I've spent time figuring out how to summon and control that magic, but only now I feel it becoming a part of me - Bravery, Integrity, Perseverance, Justice, Patience, Kindness... And the only one of the traits I've never experienced myself before: Determination.


	9. Megalomaniac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armed with improved knowledge of the Darkners, their history, and their world, the Heroes of Light advance. With the well of energy from countless souls, Betty and Kumu begin to try out new attacks and new powers...

As we exit the shop, I can spot something that wasn't there before... Or maybe it was, but I didn't see it: A feint, light blue light resembling a star. A SAVE POINT. Kumu and I look at each other, and I reach out to touch it. I feel a rejuvenating wind, and a button appears before me - the button I could only see through Chara's eyes: a SAVE button. Hesitantly, I press the button. It disappears. Nothing else happens. We progress.

In the next room, we see an empty door frame. The other side is completely dark; we can't see what's inside. I try to pass my hand into the door, only to see inside there is a wall. "This is weird. What kind of purpose does this thing serve...?" I wonder out loud, before continuing.

Lancer seems to be standing ahead of us, looking in the same direction we do. "Well, flip my flapjacks!" He exclaims once noticing us. "The  _CLOWNS_ are back in  _TOWN_! Well, bad news! Since last time you saw me several minutes ago... I've created a brand new fighting team ready to stop you! Not even the orange girl can stop me now! Ho ho ho!!! Are you ready to be THRASHED?!"

"Actually, yes." I smile. "In fact, me and Kumu decided to change our strategies and move to using our old attacks, that are a little less... DEADLY. Let's see how well your new troops can thrash us."

"You got it!" Lancer laughs. "And now...! You're going to be thrashed! AHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

Lancer runs away, allowing three Darkners in the shape of jigsaw pieces to take his place. We've seen them in the "Maze of Death" before, but never had a chance to fight one. Apparently they're called Jigsawrys. They initiate their attacks by throwing a couple of jigaw piece-shaped projectiles. They look easy to dodge at first, but then they apparently become magnetized and connect with each other while surrounding us.

"That's... Smart." I admit. It's time to channel the power of the souls. Since Kumu was posing as a Monster up until now, we find it fitting that he'll use attacks from Monsters and I'll use attacks from Humans. I nod at Kumu, and he begins by firing a volley of three bullets in the shape of cat heads. They hit one of the Jigsawrys and bite it, causing visible bite marks that bleed the weird dark ooze Darkners usually turn into when I kill them. Ralsei whips at the second Jigsawry with his scarf, and I decide to follow suit by summoning a sticky cyan lariat and whipping at the third Jigsawry. The Darkner is stuck to the rope, and I slam it unto the floor before releasing.

As I expected, the Jigsawrys I and Kumu attacked are injured, but still alive, just like the one Ralsei attacked. All three continue to launch their magnetic puzzle bullets at us - now that we know the gist, they're easier to dodge. "Now might be a good time to use your PACIFY spell, Ralsei!" I say. Ralsei nods and waves his hands, as the Jigsawry Kumu attacked instantly faints... But the other two are unaffected.

"Why didn't you tell me you can only use this spell on one enemy at a time!?" I scold Ralsei as the remaining two Jigsawrys continue to attack us. Kumu starts spraying water drops at them, while I summon a bow and fire an arrow that hits the second Jigsawry dead-on, killing it. The one Kumu attacked is still alive, and Ralsei uses his spell to PACIFY it. I walk up to the one dead Jigsawry, who already faded, and grab its soul and money feeding them to Kumu.

Ahead of us is a large closed gate. In front of the gate are two buttons, and a short distance from them, two boxes. "Oh, look, Betty! Another puzzle!" Ralsei says. "Let's read the instructions!" He walks up to a broken sign on the gate and gasps. "H... Huh!? The instructions are vandalized...! It says... **Thoust fools, thou will NEVER figure it out now!** Ruining instructions... That's definitely against the rules! Then it, um, says **PS - I make my own Rules. - RK**."

"Don't worry, I think I can figure that out." I say. Kumu and I both walk up to the boxes and start pushing them until both are on the buttons. The gate opens. "Wa-ho, you did it, Betty and Kumu!" Ralsei cheers. "Great job!"

Is this kid stupid? Even a four-year-old could figure out that puzzle. He's probably just being nice and giving too many compliments. I shrug it off as we step out of the gate.

Outside, there is another crossroad. On the path to the right, marked by two small pillars with symbols on them, a Hathy and two Rudinns await us. The path upwards also has a pillar on it, and then turns to the right. We decide to use it first.

Further on that path is a sign:  **From the bottom, the order of our rooms in Card Castle. Of course, if you haven't been there, you won't know it.**  Ahead of the sign is a puzzle, and beyond it a wall of spikes blocking the way. I haven't been to Card Castle, but I've read the memories of a few people who have. Still, there aren't enough to replicate the exact layout of the castle, so I'm not able to solve it. We decide to head to the other path first.

Of course, the enemies block our way. Kumu smiles and fires three orbs surrounded by circles at the enemies. Ralsei launches three fireballs, and I swipe my leg to release three purple slashes that slice each enemy in half, then pick up their souls and money. I decide to pull a Ralsei on Ralsei and tell him: "Look how strong you've got! You can even use your spells on multiple targets at a time! I bet your LV increase because you're part of the group."

"Yeah, thank you!" He says. Does Ralsei know what LV is? I thought only someone who has Determination can use it, but apparently being in a group with one is enough.

Beyond the enemies, the purple grass of the field is replaced with a black and red marble floor in the pattern of a chess board. The transition point is marked with more pillars. "The Great Board?" I recall the name from a few of the Darkners whose souls I possess. "This ought to be interesting."


	10. Great Board

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Heroes of Light arrive at the Great Board, where yet more dangers and complications await them. At the same time, Betty and Kumu begin to regain their connection to something they thought was long-lost...

Behind us is the field; ahead of us is the Great Board. Three rows of red and black squares, surrounded by strange pillars. Every few seconds, a strong gust of wind fills one of the rows, pushing back whatever was on it. After we get the hang of it, the three of us manage to advance between the rooms.

Suddenly, the top of two of the pillars seem to come to life and start floating towards us. The strange Darkners - named "Ponmen" - begin to fire diamond-shaped bullets at us from their "eyes", which I quickly block with a crescent shield. Then, Kumu grows several spider-like legs with webs he uses to restrain the enemies, allowing Ralsei to attack one with his scarf and me to destroy the other with an energy beam. Then, Kumu turns into a trident and impales the remaining Ponman, allowing him to eat their souls and take their money.

We advance into a narrower path - only two rows wide - and carefully walk along avoiding the winds. In the next room, Lancer awaits us. "Ha ha ha..." He laughs. "So you've begun to cross the GREAT BOARD... The halfway point to our castle. Hmm... impressive. So, it's a shame... You won't make it a step further!!! 'Cause my GUYS are about to smash you into blood! Lots of blood! Splooshing blood! Very gross and bad!" He laughs, tossing a metal bucket with a spade on it in front of us.

I try not to laugh. This kid's trying, to be sure. I think about asking him what the bucket is for, but I'm already skilled enough at reading Darkner souls to know the answer. Suddenly, it becomes even harder not to laugh.

Instead, I ask him: "O... Kay. Well then, where are your guys?"

"...Oh! Yeah!... I was so excited I forgot to bring any guys. But NEXT TIME, it will be the END for -" He's silent for a moment. "Hey, I've just been calling you guys  _CLOWN_ s... Does your team have an  _OFFICIAL NAME_ or something?"

"Oh, Betty, we should come up with a name!" Ralsei says.

"Didn't you call us  _DELTA WARRIORS_ before?" I ask him.

"Oh, yeah..." Ralsei says.

"Then we already have a name." I say to both Ralsei and Lancer.

"Oh, really?" Asks Lancer. "What is it then?"

"I just said it. The Delta Warriors."

"It's perfect!!!" Lancer cheers. "Well, see ya, Delta Warriors! I've got to osmose my afternoon milk!" He laughs, running away with the bucket in his hand.

There's another SAVE POINT behind the spot Lancer was at. I walk to it and SAVE before we proceed.

The winds in the next room move diagonally instead of straight forward, enveloping a square in each row instead of the whole row. That means we need to stop before we reach the next column where wind blows until it ceases. Once we are past that room, three more Ponmen block our path, starting to fire their strange diamonds at us. Kumu thinks for a moment before launching a magical soap bar that travels in the air and hits the Darkners one by one, leaving a shining trail. I begin to fire orange energy blasts at one of the Ponmen, killing it, and Ralsei uses his PACIFY on the other two. "Awesome, Ralsei!" I give him a high five while Kumu collects the sleeping enemies' money and the dead one's soul and money. "Looks like you've overcome your weakness and can PACIFY more than one enemy at once! I bet if you keep increasing your LV, you might be able to PACIFY your enemies even if they aren't TIRED!"

Ralsei blushes. "Y-you think so?"

"Damn right I do!" I say as Kumu returns to us, and we advance to the next room. To our surprise, it's quiet, with only a SAVE POINT and two Darkners awaiting us. I ignore them and SAVE, before we continue.

Lancer is waiting for us in the next room. "Hohoho..." He laughs to himself. "Well STEP on my BOOTS. If it isn't the Delta Warriors. You boys or girls had better turn back while you can."

"Lancer!!!" Yells Ralsei. "What is it this time!?"

"Hohoho..." Lancer laughs. "I'm simply warning you...!" He turns to us. "Something EXTREMELY dangerous is lying ahead!" He gets a little closer. "Hohoho! It's actually really inconvenient!" He gets a little closer again. "Ha! I can't go home at all because I'm so scared!"

I'm unamused. "Yeah? What's so dangerous that it could scare away a terrifying bad guy such as yourself?" I ask in an obviously sarcastic voice. Lancer simply moves out of the way, allowing us to proceed.

And in front of him, right before the end of the Great Board, is a small Darkner that looks like a human-sized checker piece with legs and a face. "Oh, hey, little guy..." Ralsei says.

I knew Lancer was stupid, but not THAT stupid. "Really? THAT's what scared you?" I asked.

"W... Wow, orange girl! You aren't scared!?"

"No, not really. What do you think this thing can do to US?"

"Hmm, well, normally..." Lancer starts, as the Darkner hops in place, causing a small shockwave of wind around it. Then, what appears to be a crown falls out of the ceiling and lands on its head, and it suddenly grows much larger and its legs become long and muscular before it turns to face us.

"It crushes people to death, I think."


	11. Checker Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Heroes of Light face their first boss... Who seems awfully unaware of what's going to happen to it. With an ancient forbidden power, Betty is about to do the impossible.

The giant, crowned, muscular... Coin, is standing in our way out of the Great Board. I try to read its soul - its name is K. Round, and it barely has any thoughts at all. However, it's very powerful. I immediately summon a gun and shoot it; Kumu fires a bolt of lightning at it. Our attacks barely fazed it. It then jumps in the air a few times, attempting to literally stomp on each one of us with a surprising amount of speed. It lands on me before jumping away, and once again I thank my inability to feel pain. I can still barely stand up; Ralsei hurries and casts a healing spell, while Kumu growls in anger and summons several spears, making them fly at the K. Round and again, only graze it. Unfazed, K. Round starts kicking the air, releasing sparkles that fly towards Kumu, who dodges.

It's clear that this is no normal enemy. I nod at Kumu; he nods back. Using the power of Patience, I raise my hands and trap K. Round in a cage of time. Then, with Perseverance, I summon two arm blades and start slashing at the K. Round's face - weapons made of or infused with Perseverance are known to be very hard to heal from. Kumu summons a venus flytrap that begins to launch gigantic flies at K. Round, shoots a dentata from its mouth, and then summons a hand-shaped plant that fires its fingers at K. Round, all of which are attacks taken from Asriel's imperfect reincarnation.

This time, K. Round looks a  _little_ hurt even without Ralsei attacking it. I smirk - looks like that would be enough...

Then, a carton of almond milk about the size of Ralsei appears in front of K. Round, and it drinks it. All of its injuries disappear instantly, and its soul appears to grow stronger. Darkners can do that? This is going to be an issue.

K. Round started jumping around again, this time, creating sparkles over the ground whenever it lands. Some of them even hit Kumu. He growls.

"Time to break out the big guns!" I nod at Kumu again. Ralsei launches a larger-than-usual fireball at K. Round to no effect, then lays down and looks tired. Kumu breathes out a massive barrage of comet-like energy bolts that home on K. Round as it moves, while I summon a red sword: The sword of Determination, and fire a crescent energy projectile that hits it and explodes. This time, K. Round immediately resorts to drinking almond milk before it starts flying in the air, leaving a trail of stardust that hits us. I can feel it: K. Round's attacks are becoming stronger, and it can heal instantly before it attacks us. But thankfully, I can still look into the thing's soul. I know exactly how much HP it restores every time it drinks that milk. All we have to do is outdamage its healing.

"There's no choice. We have to go full power!" I yell at Kumu, who again transforms into a lance connected to my arm. I jump at K. Round and stab it, creating an afterburner of pink energy behind us. Now there's a giant, bleeding hole in K. Round, but another milk carton heals it. "It's not working!" Screams Ralsei as he returns to whip K. Round with his scarf.

"Then what are we supposed to do!? I don't think it even unders-" I'm interrupted as K. Round starts to jump at me again, while I'm still holding Kumu. Both of us are taking damage. By the time it gets up, my mouth is bleeding.

Then I realize... The liquid coming out of my mouth is black. Even blacker than the Darkner's "blood" and the Fountain. After what happened back on the Surface, I recognize this anywhere - it's HATE. Pure, distilled, liquified hate. Chara, or more accurately, a different Human claiming to be possessed by Chara, began to generate that stuff when they were massacring the Monsters, and the hate the Monsters had for them accumulated and turned into this. That HATE was destroyed when I killed Asriel, but I eventually realized that I was generating it myself, because both the Monsters  **and** the Humans hated me.

Back then, I was terrified of this thing - despite its benefits, it was also capable of corrupting the one who uses it and make them become a mindless beast who does nothing but kill. But during the long time that passed, I learned to make sure that won't happen. No longer the HATE will control me - now I control it. And with nobody else to hate me anymore, the HATE shriveled and died, or at least nearly died. But now, thanks to the hate of the Darkners, it resurfaces.

My admittedly severe injuries heal instantly. I can feel my power rise. Kumu turns into a scythe, and I use it to slam the ground, creating a linear shockwave that hits K. Round and knocks it over. Black claws form around my fingers and I jump on K. Round, striking its face and causing several scratches on it...

Then it gets up and drinks another milk carton. This time, its injuries are not fully healed, but it's still mostly fine. "Damn it! So even this power wasn't enough!?" I scream in despair. "Is there no way to kill this thing!?"

But then, I remember something... One thing that's going to  _completely_ overturn the situation. An ability Chara used, born of HATE powering Determination. FILE 0.

The world we live in is made of data. Our strength, our durability, our health - all of those are variables written in the code. Determination allows its user to tap into this code and gain control of it, giving its user godlike powers. And HATE amplifies everything, including that ability. FILE 0 allowed Chara to edit his own LOVE, HP, ATK and DEF. And now I have both of the powers that allowed them to do it.

Before K. Round gets to attack again, Kumu turns into a fist coated by red energy and rushes into K. Round, this time shattering it in one attack. The broken shards melt into dark blood, leaving behind its soul, its crown, and its seemingly bottomless carton of almond milk. Unsurprisingly, there's no money, but Kumu can collect those three valuable items before the HATE seemingly disappears from our bodies.

"Checkmate."


	12. FILE 0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the defeat of K. Round and the awakening of HATE, the Heroes of Light have finished the Great Board... And thanks to the power of HATE, Ralsei will no longer have to be useless.

"Wow!! You clowns really ARE heroes!!" Lancer cheers us. "You saved the next twenty minutes of my life!!"

"Try to enjoy them while they last." I chuckle.

"That was amazing!!" Ralsei joins Lancer in the cheering. "How did you two do that!?"

I'm not sure Ralsei will even understand how coding the world's data works, and even if he does, I can say from experience that the last thing he needs is to find out he's just a character in a video game.

Instead, I say: "It's a strange power the Humans have discovered a long time ago... Although probably not as long as when the Lightners left this world. It stems from  _DETERMINATION_ and allows its user to control their own power levels."

Ralsei holds his chin for a moment... "Does that mean..." He stops.

"Does that mean what?" I ask him.

"Nevermind." He says. "Doesn't matter."

I'm not letting him away this time. I look into his soul to find what he was thinking... And why he didn't want to say it. I smile.

"Now that I think about it..." I say. "In this world, every time one of us increases their LOVE, all three of us have our LOVE increase. So maybe I can use this power on more than just myself..."

Ralsei lowers "his" head. "This  _is_ what I wanted to say... I was looking forward to fight alongside the Heroes of Light, but, now I see you're so much more powerful than me... I want to be useful, Betty. No matter what I have to give up on, I don't want to be the weak spot in the party."

Call it cheating, but I know why Ralsei is so reluctant to be subjected to FILE 0 and HATE. I turn to Lancer. "Why are you still here? Don't you have more bad guy things to do? Assembling more fighting teams to thrash us and what not?"

He blinks. "Now that you mention it, I do! Thanks for reminding me. It was nice to meet you, Delta Warriors! Goodbye!" He runs away laughing. Kumu backs away from us.

"Alright, Ralsei." I take a breath. "I can already see you're nervous. Just stay still and let me do this. It'll be over before you know it."

Ralsei doesn't say it out loud, but the real problem is what happens  **after** it's over. To make things easier, I activate the power of Patience again and slow time to a halt before I can quietly pour a bit of HATE into Ralsei's soul and use FILE 0 to increase Ralsei's LOVE and resume time again.

Kumu and I knew this was going to happen, but we pretend to be shocked seeing the result. As a side effect of the sharp increase in power and magic, Ralsei - who previously looked like a five to seven-year-old, now looks like a young adult. Ralsei is blushing madly trying to cover her ample and clearly female body with her hands, even more so with her robe covering a lot less of her skin - I mean, fur. What's more is that even though the shadow her hat casts already made it look like Ralsei's fur is black (an effect that's kind of ruined by several other parts of her body being exposed) HATE is now covering some of it like a tattoo, in addition to her eye scleras being black and her irises pink.

I simply walk up to Ralsei and give her a hand. "Is anything wrong?"

"N-no!" Ralsei looks away. "Y-you're not surprised... Did you... Did you know I was a girl...?"

I give her a warm smile. "No... I just don't care. In fact, I don't see why you should care either."

"It's just..." Ralsei calms down a little. "I wanted to be a prince because... The prince in legends is always the heroic one. All a princess does is be kidnapped and wait for a prince to save her... That's why I didn't want anyone to know I was a princess."

I hold her hand. "But after meeting me and Kumu, you already understand that you shouldn't believe legends... Isn't that right?" This time, all she does is nod.

Ralsei doesn't know this, of course, but HATE and LOVE to more than make one stronger. Increasing one's LOVE also increases their bloodlust, making them more prone to violence and less sympathetic. At LV20, the human that had the soul of Determination before Chara completely lost his ability to have MERCY and became a mindless killing machine. HATE accelerates this process even further as it stacks up the user's own bloodlust with everyone else's hate for them. Despite how weak Ralsei was before I infused her with HATE, I got to give her props for having enough willpower to almost not change mentally after being instantly boosted to over LV30. Although, ironically, the HATE I gave Ralsei actually assists in this, because it is under my control at the moment. Since I've mastered control over HATE, I should be able to control Ralsei better than I did Sans or Asriel, but since Ralsei is already my ally, I see no need for that. Right now all I'm doing with it is keep Ralsei at her current mindset. But it's still worth checking.

"Do you feel... Different?" I ask Ralsei.

She looks at herself. "Yes... But it feels good. More confident..." An aura of flame erupts around her. "And much more powerful."

I smile. "You got what you wanted. From now on, you won't have to live in our shadow anymore."

Ralsei nods, and we head out of the Great Board.


	13. Quiet Autumn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new and improved Delta Warriors have exited the Great Board and enter the Scarlet Forest. New enemies are approaching, and Ralsei has a chance to test her new strength.

Outside the Great Board is a forest of dark purple trees with reddish pink leaves. We can see a SAVE Point and a door near our path, with a Jigsawry and one of the Darkners we've seen in the Great Board next to it. Flames are creeping underneath the creak in the door. I decided not to use it.

In the next room, there are several orange bushes. As we walk past, a creature that looks like a pile of dust in the shape of a rabbit's head appears and jumps at us. Its name is Rabbick. I look over to Ralsei, who's still embarrassed. "Now's your chance! I bet with this much LOVE you can PACIFY this thing even without tiring it first!"

Ralsei nods and waves her hand; the Rabbick immediately falls asleep. We progress.

Lancer is in the next room, as per usual. He looks confused. "Hey, Delta Warriors! Aren't you, uh, missing a member?"

Kumu and I look at each other. "What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Uhh..." Lancer looks around for a moment. "What happened to toothpaste boy?"

"You mean Ralsei?" I look at him, then at Ralsei. "Nothing happened. It's just... Well... Ralsei's not a boy."

"Ooohhh, I get it!" Lancer started to laugh. "Ralsei's a trap!" He runs away.

Ralsei tilts her head. "A... Trap?" She looks like she doesn't understand what this means.

"Maybe we can talk about this later." I say.

Another Rabbick attacks us. I quickly use a Monster's ability to grab the Rabbick's soul and let Kumu eat it, and then I take its money. Looks like it doesn't mind.

We progress a little more. I can see Lancer sitting next to a tree stump and eating what appears to be salsa out of a hole in the stump. We ignore him.

The next room is filled with strange turrets with chains attached to them and spinning in a wide circle. We try our best to avoid them while progressing.

In the room after that, we see Lancer standing and drawing on what appears to be a blueprint. The rest of the path is blocked by spikes, and next to Lancer is a symbol matching puzzle with a series of symbols above it. There's also a sign that says: (Enter the password! Note: Due to everyone forgetting the password, it's written at the top.) I shrug and solve the puzzle. The spikes retract.

Lancer starts to laugh. "Wow, thank you, losers! I was having trouble solving this puzzle!" He runs away. Then, he immediately comes back. "Wait, I forgot this." He grabs the blueprint and runs away again.

There's another symbol matching puzzle in the next room, except this one doesn't have the answer written on top of it. However, the path blocked with the password isn't the only path in the area, and we proceed to one of the others. A "Bloxer", a Darkner whose body consists of three parts that seem to not be in the right order, blocks our way and attempts to punch me. Ralsei immediately burns its face with an exploding fireball, making all three of its body parts fade with only its soul and items left. We take them.

There are two smaller paths splitting from the one we stand on. Walking up to one of them, we see the first part of the password left to the first road, the second part between the two roads, and the third part right to the second road. I go back and enter the password, unlocking the spikes.

Beyond the spikes is just another room with two Darkners in it. "Well, that was a waste of time." We turn back and go into the main path again. There's another Bloxer in the way; Kumu summons Freak bullets, ghostly heads that fly into the Darkner and bump into it. Ralsei no longer needs her scarf; instead, she conjures a chain of fire and whips at the Darkner, killing it.

The next room has another symbol matching puzzle in it. There's a sign reading the password, but it seems to have been torn down.

A Darkner's head emerges from a hole in the ground. "RK came by... What a hunk! He vandalized the puzzle to stop the Lightners... But WE know the answers! Oh, you wanna get through!? Of course we'll tell you!!! Umm... The first symbol is a HEART! Haha, just like LOVE! Does that help!?"

"I guess so." A type a heart into the puzzle, then I notice two more holes in the ground. I walk into one of them, and the Darkner's head emerges from it. "Um, symbol puzzle...?" Its voice sounds a bit different. "All the symbols were different... I think. You can, um... Still see the colors they were, too... Sorry I can't be any more help..."

The symbols on the answer sign are blurred out, but I can tell the middle one is a different color from the two others. I walk to the third hole, and the head emerges. "Huh!? Symbol puzzle...!? Why should --WE-- care!? None of the symbols are CLUBs! ARRRGH, it's downright insulting!"

By now I figured out this isn't the same Darkner in every hole. But I also have enough clues to solve the puzzle. I type in the right passwords, and the spikes retract.

Before we can proceed to the next room, the Darkners in the hole come after us... And turn out to be one, three-headed Darkner made of a soft white substance.

"Heyy~! It's my birthday today~!" Says one head. "And you didn't even SAY HELLO!?" Says another. "That's fine, actually..." Says the third.

The creature - whose name is apparently Clover -continues to argue with herself for a few seconds and then summons several clubs, each one firing three volleys of bullets at us from its "leaves". Kumu summons a small white dog with a hole for a face that fires numerous arrows at Clover and then turns into a rocket and rushes at her.

Clover is on about half her HP. She fires more club-shaped bullets, each one splits into its three "leaves" and targets one of us. I summon a green shield to block them, and then summons a dark blue rapier, which extends and cuts off Clover's right head. "AAHHHH! I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER!" Her left head cries. "Uh-uh-it's alright! No hard feelings!" Her middle (now right) head stutters.

Despite the last declaration, Clover keeps attacking us, now faster and stronger. Kumu summons a dark blue razor blade on a light blue string and cuts off Clover's left head. "I-I-I'm fine on my own! For real!" Her last remaining head says, before Ralsei conjures a sword of fire and cuts it off. Clover's body fades, and I take her soul and her money.

"Huh. Only one soul. Makes you wonder how it was possible for one soul to create three personalities." I said quietly, and we proceed.


	14. Scarlet Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three heroes proceed at their bloodied path into the Scarlet Forest! As they progress, Lancer continues to be a nuisance. Perhaps it is time they teach him his place.

In the next room, there are several Darkners in bake sale stands - Lancer is in one of them - and another flaming door. There's also a SAVE Point, which I use before we proceed in one of the pathways to the next room.

The only thing in this room is a large red Darkner with a head resembling the shape of a hammer. "Well, well." He says. "I am the smith Malius. I can fix anything. Weapon, armor... I can even fix you! Well, well, what will it be?"

"Um... No thanks." I say somewhat awkwardly. "We don't have anything BROKEN."

"Well, well. Good journey, my friends." He says, before we leave.

We ignore the bake sale and go into the next room, where several more Bloxers await us. Not impressed, we kill them, take their souls and their money, and advance.

The next room is filled with what appears to be life-sized paper dolls dancing around blocking our way. They aren't even Darkners, just dolls. As we progress, I burn each doll with a persistence shot whenever it blocks the path.

Using the memories of the Darkners' souls, I find a hidden path filled with Rabbicks, which we promptly kill and take their stuff. On the end of the path is a chest that contains what appears to be a broken metal stick. Kumu eats it and we proceed.

Lancer is in the next room, with his back facing us. "Oh, woe! Woe is me...! Rows and rows of woes and woes! If only a hero would help..."

"Lancer...?" Says Ralsei. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, I'm not Lancer!" Says Lancer. "I'm just a sweet little boy!"

"Why does a sweet little boy have a mustache." Asks Ralsei.

"As a disguise." Lancer laughs.

I sigh. "Alright, what do you need help with?"

"See, I have this EVIL PLAN that I need to make..." He starts.

"I thought you were a sweet little boy." I say with a straight face.

"And you're right!" Lancer laughs a bit more.

"Well then, we'll gladly help. What do we need to do?" Asks Ralsei.

"It's all in the paper, you delicious little apple!" Says Lancer. A large monitor device drops from the ceiling. "Just fill it with the most evil thing you can imagine! Ho ho ho! Let the Clown-Generated-Content begin!"

I turn the monitor on and a message appears:

**Create a machine to thrash your own ass**

Presented by Lancer Industries

(Which was just made up right now)

Then, several stats appear on the screen, in addition to three menus for "HEAD", "BODY" and "SHOE", with several options for each body part. "This... Could be interesting." pressing a few buttons, I choose the "FLAME" head, "TANK" body, and "TREAD" shoe.

"Wow!! Looks nasty! Are you sure you aren't evil!?" Asks Lancer after I finish.

"Nope, not really." I say winking.

"Well, it was great to exchange ideas anyways! Thank you for the plan! Thrash-you-later, you fools!" He grabs the monitor and runs away.

In the next room, a strange creature with a star-shaped head and bird-like wings appears as soon as we enter, starting to shoot star-shaped projectiles at us. I dodge, summon my spear, impale the Darkner and grabs its soul... Or in this case, two souls. The head and the wings turned out to be two separate Darkners. Kumu eats their souls anyway along with their money.

The next room is square-shaped, with another chain turret at its center. In the entrance is a sign: (Revolve around the center, and look carefully. The darker it gets, the more you can see.)

Another, wider square surrounds the central square, and the turret's chain isn't reaching there. Using that path, we walk up to the other side of the room, where the way out is blocked by a tree. "Ralsei?" I look at Ralsei, who nods before blasting the tree with a fireball that makes it explode and allows us to continue.

In the next room, we see Lancer laying on a bed with a Rudinn fanning him. There's also a SAVE Point. While I'm using it, Ralsei goes up to Lancer and asks him: "How's the thrash machine we designed going?"

"The WHAT machine?" Asks Lancer.

"The machine...? We had a whole sequence about it...?"

Lancer gets up. "Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me! I totally forgot about it!" He starts walking out. "By the way, beware yourselves of the forest maze. Since you don't know the way through, you're gonna get completely lost! Not me though. I know the forest like the back of my head!" Then he walks out. Before he does, I look into his soul again.

Once Lancer leaves, we start walking after him, deliberately taking the opposite path in every turn Lancer takes. There are more turrets, dancing paper dolls and Darkners on the way, and we kill them. It takes far less time than I anticipated. Then, we reach the end.

I can see something hidden in the trees. "B... Betty!" Ralsei starts. "Isn't that the  _machine_ we designed...!?" An aura of flame appears around her again. "Alright! Let's see how good this machine is gonna do against us!"

As we get closer and can see it more clearly, it becomes apparent that the "thrash machine" was made of garbage. "Oh. That's... not good, actually." Says Ralsei.

"Ho ho ho! You think THAT'S bad, just WAIT!" Says Lancer, appearing behind the machine. "And see what happens when it STARTS!!!" As he says that, the machine explodes. "Oh. That... Wasn't supposed to happen."

"Guess the parts you managed to collect weren't sufficient for my complex designs." I say with a smug smile.

Then, Kumu smiles. "What is this, Kumu?" I ask him. "Do you think we can create that machine with our Lightner magic?" Kumu nods. "Alright then! Let's give it a try!"

Using his stolen Monster magic, Kumu forms a large magical structure in the form of the machine we designed earlier. "No, I think you can do better than that." I tell him. He nods, and the machine glows as it becomes bigger and gold in color, and gains two "arms" in the shape of the discarded LAZER and SWORD heads.

"Wowie!!" Lancer looks at our creation with awe. "This is way better than I imagined! Thrashing you is going to be way easier than I expected!"

I start to laugh a little. "Maybe it would have been if YOU built this thing, but... This is my design, Kumu built it, therefore, it's OURS. So... How about WE use it to thrash YOU instead!"

Lancer immediately goes from laughing and cheering to being frozen in fear. "Oh boy."

Then, the machine's head blows a stream of golden fire that burns Lancer to a crisp. All that's left is his soul and items, which Kumu takes, before making the machine disappear.

"Hm. I expected Lancer to be a more dangerous foe." I say to myself. "Oh well. Not like I mind."


	15. Card Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Lancer finally defeated, the Delta Warriors are now free to proceed towards the last stop in their dreadful journey. What is going to await them in the darkest depths of the Dark World?

I breathe a long sigh of relief, knowing that we finally got rid of that annoying creep Lancer once and for all. I take a moment to check the area - there's a SAVE Point, which I promptly use, and an empty doorframe. Thanks to my experience in looking into the souls of Darkners, I can now see that this door is the same as the few doors with flames underneath them we've seen, just not yet completed. Once it is completed, we'll be able to travel from it to any other flame door in the Dark World.

The path after this is surprisingly calm and quiet. No Darkners in the way for a while. Guess they finally got who's boss. There's another Dark Candy tree - we haven't seen these in a long time. Kumu picks up the fruit and we progress. I can already see Card Castle in the distance, complete with the Dark Fountain bursting its top.

At the very next room, Darkners that seem like an enhanced variant of Rudinns begin to appear, firing diamonds at us. All three of us begin to blast them while dodging their attacks, but we're too far away to take their souls.

We continue to run until reaching the front gate of the castle, which as expected, is close. "We've cornered them!" Says one of the strange Rudinns as all of them begin to surround us. A wide circle of diamond-bullets appears blocking our way in every direction.

I smirk. All of them are fired at once, and I exclaim: "RHABDOPHOBIA!"

The entire area around me becomes negative, and the bullets are stopped in their tracks. Then, they fire themselves back at the Rudinn Rangers, each one of them impaled by its own bullet and killed.

"W-wow!" Ralsei looks at the souls scattered on the floor, no longer scared or appalled thanks to her higher LOVE. "You saved us! How did you do that?"

"Another forgotten LIGHTNER magic." I blush a little, except the blush is gold instead of pink or red. "I'm, kind of an expert with those. But whatever these things were, they're no ordinary Rudinns. I have a feeling that from this point onwards the enemies we'll face will be a lot stronger... But still not strong enough to beat US."

We collect the souls and money of the dead enemies. The castle gate, of course, is closed either way... But Kumu grows three tentacles, each one pulling out one of the bars holding it closed, forcibly opening our doorway.

The inside of the castle is entirely black, with only some outlines being white. The blackness is actually the color of the castle and its contents, and it's not actually dark, so I can see enemy Rudinn Rangers awaiting us in the entrance. As I anticipated, they are much stronger versions of normal Rudinns, and they're even more determined to take us down. They start to throw knives at us, which Kumu turns into a shield and blocks them, and then responds by summoning a GasterBlaster and blasting them to oblivion, allowing us to collect their souls and items.

The path splits in four. There's a diamond-shaped door at the right, a staircase at the middle-right, and an elevator in both the left and middle-left paths. I decide to go up the staircase first. In the next room, there are several whip turrets like the ones in the forest. At the bottom of the room is a corridor leading to a bathroom marked with a spade. At the top is another staircase blocked by spikes, and to the left is an empty room with only a patch of purple grass in it.

As soon as we step in, spikes erect, blocking our exit. "So the worms have decided to crawl out and play..." Says a disembodied voice.

"Who's there!?" Asks Ralsei.

"Geh ha ha ha! Thoust FOOLS!" Says the voice. A pillar of light appears, out of it steps a relatively humanoid blue Darkner with white outlines, a diamond-shaped head, long white hair, royal suit with epaulets, white eyes and a large mouth with one missing tooth.

"I am Rouxls Kaard, thou're greatest adversary!" He says. "Thou may have clawedst past all thouse otherest conundrums... But THOUSE were created by UTTER WEAKLINGS! Now, prepare thouself. For the STRONGEST puzzle of THOUST LIFE!"

In a flash of light, a button and a box appear in the grass patch, directly next to each other. "TOIL, worms!" Rouxls laughs. Kumu reaches out with a tentacle and pushes the box into the button, activating it and retracting the spikes.

"...GOD DAMN IT" Rouxls flies away.

"This guy's... Weird." I say to myself as we go back to the previous room, where the spikes leading to the staircase seem to have also retracted. We go up the staircase into a room with two diagonal corridors. Going into one of them, three Hathy-like Darkners called Head Hathys block our way. They seem to be smarter than their regular counterparts, their heart rings concentrating on us instead of staying still. Kumu summons a razor-sharp bone and impales one, and I summon a purple arm blade and cut the second in half. The third Head Hathy creates a singular heart that spins much faster than a normal Hathy's and stops unexpectedly, which Ralsei blocks with a wall of fire before summoning a fire disc and decapitating it. Kumu eats their soul and money as usual.

Behind the Head Hathys was another staircase, but I figure out I should check the other pathway too, after killing the Head Hathys guarding it of course. Behind it is a heart-shaped bedroom door.

I close my eyes and remember the puzzle in the field, which said it was ordered like the bedrooms in Card Castle. I smirk; Looks like I'm two steps away from finishing it.


	16. Rouxls Kaard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three legendary heroes proceed deeper into Card Castle, the path becoming more dangerous by the second. Their greatest adversary lies on ahead, but it's already clear he's not that great at all.

The next room is filled with three identical portraits of Lancer, and more dancing paper dolls. At this point Ralsei just disintegrates them and we continue. The path down is once again blocked, so we go to the right. Once again, we enter an empty room with a patch of grass in the center. "Here we go again..." I sigh, right before Rouxls appears again.

"Geh ha ha..." He laughs. "Thoust guys really think that was all I hadst!? WRONGE! It's time for you to feel my Reale Powere! Behold! My ULTIMATE Puzzle!" A puzzle identical to the first one, just with the block slightly further away from the button, appears. "HAVE AT YOU!"

Just like the first time, Kumu simply extends a tendril and pulls the block into the button. The spikes blocking our exit retract.

"Ahh..." Rouxls looks shocked. "Ahh... Ha...! Ha ha ha! Gullible worms! That wasn'tst REALLY my ultimate puzzle! I have a wayst better one right... here!"

"Can... Can we see it?" Asks Ralsei.

"No" said Rouxls and phases out of the room.

"He... Didn't really have a better one." I say quietly.

Just like in the previous room, the spikes blocking the way up retracted. Next to the staircase, there's a clover-shaped door. The third room.

The next room has three things in it: A spade-shaped bedroom, a shop, and an elevator, in addition to a staircase that isn't blocked by spikes. I decide to go down the elevator back to the entrance in order to solve the puzzle in the field, which we get to using the flame doors. After killing a few more Darkners standing in our way, we get to the puzzle and solve it. Beyond the spikes is a chest containing the bow of an old key with the same texture as the stick we found in the forest. "Looks like we know what that was for." I say. "I think I know where the last piece is, but let's ignore it for now."

We get back in the castle using the same flame doors and use the elevator to get back to the room we were in. Going up the staircase, we find ourselves in a room with marks on the walls similar to the gaps between bricks. "Enough, Worms...!" Echoes Rouxls Kaard's voice as he appears. "Thou may have CHEATETHED through mine PUZZLES, but... In COMBAT, thou shalt be scattered about! Come, knaves...! Prepareth for battle with...!"

He moves back a little, allowing another beam of light to summon... A K. Round.

"Whatever this is!!!"

"This is the same type of enemy as the one we encountered in the Great Board!" Says Ralsei. "But its CROWN looks different!"

"No it doesn't." I say.

"Yes!" Says Rouxls. "With my Control Crowne... I mayst control ANY disc-shaped Lifeforme!" As he says it, the K. Round stomps on the ground.

"We killed one of these things once before." I say. "And we sure as hell can do it again!"

Truth to be told, this K. Round appears to be even stronger than the last one - but we're stronger, too. It keeps stomping around, but we can dodge all of its attacks easily. Kumu turns into a scythe and I charge it with HATE before bisecting K. Round in one hit, allowing Kumu to take its items, including the Control Crown.

Rouxls is in complete shock, again. "Why, brilliant! Just BRILLIANT!" He says. "I knew you couldst do it! Thou great heroes, thou! Thou see-eth, that was merely... A friendly TEST of thine abilities! But thou hast WON! And now, NOTHING blocks thine path! I, personally, could NOT be less of an obstruction!"

"Correct." I say, summoning my spear and impaling him to take his soul.

At the end of the room is a staircase, as usual. I already know where it leads. Instead, I decide to turn back.

"There is one thing left we need to do before ending this nightmare." I say.

"And what would that be?" Asks Ralsei.

"We're going... To complete this key."


	17. The Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heroes of prophecy are on the road to the final piece of a puzzle they were waiting to complete for a long time. What will await them at the end of this mystery, and are they ready to face it?

Rouxls Kaard and his new and improved K. Round have been defeated. We are a step away from defeating the King of Darkness, but I decide to sidetrack for a bit. We take an elevator to a floor we haven't visited yet, whose name simply reads "??????" _._

We exit the elevator door into a long staircase made of the same purplish rock as the cliffs, and lit with blue candles. At the bottom of the staircase is a SAVE point and a large knobless door, which I knock at after SAVING.

"BOO HOO, BOO HOO, UEE HEE HEE." Says a high-pitched raspy voice from the other side. "SO LONELY, LONELY, I BE... BUT LO, TWO VISITORS STANDING INSIDE? WHO ARE YOU FEW?"

"TWO visitors?" I ask suspiciously. Is it possible that this being knows Kumu is part of me? "There are three of us. I am Betty, and with me are my companions Ralsei and Kumu. Who are you and what are you doing in this cell?"

"I AM INNOCENT, INNOCENT." Says the voice. "I JUST WANTED TO PLAY A GAME, GAME. BUT THE BORING KINGS FOUND SUCH FUN TO BE A TROUBLE. AS PUNISHMENT, THEY CRAVED TO IMPRISON MY BODY. BUT I'M FAST, FAST, CLEVER, CLEVER. THEY LOST THE CHASE, AND LOCKED UP THEIR ENTIRE RACE, BUILDING A PRISON AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD. NOW I'M THE ONLY FREE ONE."

The door... Doesn't seem like a door. It looks more like a dimensional barrier, meaning I can't get in by destroying it. It also obscures my ability to sense souls, so I'm not sure what this being wants. "They were not the only ones. It's been a long time since I tasted freedom myself."

"THEN WE ALL HAVE NEEDS IN NEED OF MEETING!" Replies the voice. "I GROW LONELY IN MY LITTLE FREEDOM. SO, SHALL YOU PLAY A GAME WITH ME, ME...? I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FREE!"

"Play a game?" I ask, sensing a glimpse of the answer. "That's not even a question. We're already playing one."

The voice sounds... Proud. "FIND THE KEY, AND I'LL LET YOU BE FREE, FREE. THE KEY IS HIDDEN FROM THE EYES. THE OLD SHOPKEEPER KNOWS A SECRET."

"Got it." Even without reading his soul, I can tell he's talking about Seam. I nod and we head out.

Using the flaming door type portals, we go back to the field and meet Seam. Entering his shop, I sit down and get straight to business. "Seam." I say. "I need to ask you something."

"Don't have anything better to do." Says the old cat.

"We've already made it to Card Castle." I start. "But while we were in it, a prisoner with an odd manner cried out for us to help him. He said you know the location of the key that can free him."

"Eh...? What are you talking about...?" Seam looks startled. "A prisoner with an odd manner...? No, you couldn't possibly be talking about HIM...? I see. After all the trouble I went through to lock him up, you want to release him?... Hmm, now that you mention it, it could be troublesome if he was left alone... Yes, perhaps it's better if you Heroes dealt with him now...? After all, it's not as if whatever happens, will matter in the end. Perhaps a little chaos might be fun. So then, take this."

Seam places a key's ward with the same texture as the shank and bow we gathered earlier. "If you're so driven, find the other  **two** pieces, and get someone to  **fix** them. I'll even give you a hint -  **Walk where the stars don't shine**. Anyhow, if you succeed, come back and tell me! Good luck!! If you can call THIS luck... No, it's more like a curse...!"

"Don't worry. We're going to take care of him, once and for all." I say before the three of us walk out.

Using another flaming door portal, we warp back into the Scarlet Forest and come greet Malius. "Hello." I say. "We have a broken ITEM in need of fixing." I say, placing the three key pieces on the ground next to him.

"Huh---!" Gasps Malius. "That KEY is seething with energy! You must let me fix it! Huh-hah! Let's feel my technique!" Malius takes a Kung Fu stance... Before starting to repeatedly smack his hammer-shaped head at the key, which then miraculously reforms without any sign of prior damage.

"....Hmm, this KEY has a terrible energy coming from it... Please understand that I only fixed it... So that you will never have to use it."

"Well..." I say, conjuring my spear. "That's too bad. I can't let such a useful restoring ability go to waste." I say, impaling Malius through the soul with my spear and feeding it to Kumu. His body fades to darkness.

I knew from the start that this "prisoner" was more than he seemed. Reading Seam's soul already told me everything, and "everything" was certainly interesting - Jevil is aware that he's in a game. I became aware of that myself when I absorbed the soul of Determination so long ago. Most of the people who knew it were, understandably, quite shocked by it. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't nearly as blown away as everyone else. It just didn't feel like it matters either way, and in light of things like Chara and his predecessor's ability to RESET time, it only made sense. I was more interested in the fact that I was apparently a "boss" in the game who was capable of permanently destroying the actual player and taking their place after that - this, at least, made me feel something similar to pride, but not exactly.

I go back to Card Castle and take the elevator to Jevil's cell. His voice speaks again: "UEE HEE HEE, THE KEY, THE KEY. A MARVELOUS FUN IS ABOUT TO BREAK FREE. WON'T YOU LET YOURSELF OUTSIDE?"

I hold the now completed KEY in front of the door, and a smaller door with a knob forms within it. I SAVE and walk in.

The "room" in the other side is completely dark, and the only visible things are a blue and purple, carousel-like structure upon which we are standing, along with a short impish creature with gray skin and a black-and-purple jester outfit standing across from us.

"UEE HEE!" Laughs Jevil. "VISITORS, VISITORS! NOW WE CAN PLAY, PLAY! THEN, AFTER YOU, I CAN PLAY WITH EVERYONE ELSE, TOO!"

"Of course that's what you want to do..." I say quietly. "But... You'll need to survive playing with me, first. I'll have you know..." Kumu transforms into a trident. "I'm quite the master at this game."

"UEE HEE HEE!" Jevil laughs. "A CLASH OF MASTERS! I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY! NOW, NOW!! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!"

As soon as Jevil says that, the  carousel we're standing on begins to rotate, and purplish grey mist fills the room.

And the games begin.


	18. THE WORLD REVOLVING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three heroes prepare to face their toughest challenge yet, fighting an opponent the likes of which they've never seen before. However, Betty has one last trick up her sleeve that might settle the score, at a cost...

Without waiting for Jevil to do anything else, I charge my trident - Kumu - with fiery heat and lunge at Jevil. Before my strike connects, Jevil vanishes, appears behind me, and spits out a volley of spade-shaped bullets in a fan pattern. Before I can even dodge, he blinks sideways and spits another barrage, which hits me, before he continues to do this until Ralsei hits him with a fireball. Jevil's head starts bobbing around frantically with a long spring connecting it to its body.

"SHALL WE PLAY THE RING-AROUND?" Jevil laughs, seemingly unfazed, as a circle of large spade bullets surrounds us and the bullets begin to bound at us one by one counterclockwise. Ralsei surrounds us with a dome of fire that blocks the bullets and I throw two flames at Jevil.

"MY HEARTS GO OUT TO ALL YOU SINNERS!" Laughs Jevil, hurling a bomb with a heart painted on it towards Ralsei. Kumu turns the bomb blue and throws it back at Jevil, the bomb explodes, but then four hearts come out of the blast circling one another and hit me and Ralsei. While all of this happens, Jevil throws a few more bombs at us, and I can't block all of them before they hit. Ralsei is hurt, and I have part of my face burned off. I grunt as the hole is filled by HATE and regenerated.

"HA, HA. LET'S MAKE THE DEVILSKNIFE." Jevil screams, turning into a giant scythe, which then splits into four scythes that begin to orbit around me and attack me all at the same time, causing cuts on my arms. Ralsei casts a spell that heals both of us and I conjure a golden bow and fire an arrow that chases Jevil and hits him in the eye as soon as he reappears.

Jevil's head is thrown back from the arrow but quickly connects back. He seems like he doesn't care. "PIIP PIIP, LET'S RIDE THE CAROUSEL GAME." He says, as a tornado of bullets that appear like ducks with horse heads starts revolving around me. I start firing bullets at it from my fingers, and Kumu summons four Gaster Blasters to destroy the bullets. Kumu then turns into a scythe and I empower it with HATE before slashing at him - no visible damage is dealt.

I ready myself, creating a dome of HATE around the three of us. "HEE, HEE, HAVING FUN?!" Laughs Jevil. "JOIN THE CLUB!" He begins to hurl yet more bombs, with clovers painted on them, which release three clover-shaped bullets in a fan pattern. The barrage of explosives and spade bullets actually punches holes in the unbreakable dome of HATE, and there's still plenty of bombs coming. Kumu summons a Hyper Goner which sucks in the bombs and then spits them back at Jevil. He just continues laughing. "HEARTS, DIAMONDS, I CAN DO ANYTHING!" Laughs Jevil, summoning a huge wave of diamond-bullets with a wave of his hand. Kumu summons a giant hand with a purple circle in the palm which starts to fire larger black-and-purple diamonds to intercept them, I raise a crescent red shield and Ralsei summons a wall of flames, but some of Jevil's bullets  _still_ hit us. I slow Jevil down in time for just long enough to use FILE 0 to increase our defense right before he breaks out.

"WHO KEEPS SPINNING THE WORLD AROUND?" Asks Jevil, not waiting for an answer, before he starts summoning rings of spades around us again. "Out of attacks already?" I ask, only to get hit by a spade and notice they're moving much faster than before. I ready myself to dodge the next wave, except this wave spins clockwise, catches me by surprise and hits me again.

"ENOUGH!!" I scream in rage. "We still have one last ace up our sleeve!"

"We do!?" Asks Ralsei.

Jevil doesn't attack again. He seems curious.

"The Heroes of Light's ultimate secret power!" I exclaim. "The power to merge into one shining and invincible hero!!"

Before Ralsei can do anything else, Kumu extends his tongue like a toad, impales Ralsei through the soul, and swallows it, causing Ralsei's body to disappear in a puff of darkness. Then, I summon my spear and throw it at Kumu, who liquefies and wraps himself around the spear before I impale myself with it. The white of my eyes turns dark orange and my pupils and irises melt, and then I blink, gaining new golden irises with dark orange slit pupils. Then, I transform one hand into a large hammer and summon a Chaos Blaster in the other, firing a rainbow beam and volley of stars at Jevil before teleporting in front of him and hitting him with the hammer.

"YOU KID ARE REALLY KEEPING UP!" Says Jevil, a little hurt but he still doesn't care. He summons another tornado of horses and ducks, with the ducks traveling up while the horses travel down and vice versa. But thanks to my newly acquired fusion, I can dodge the attack far more efficiently, and the attacks that do hit me do little to no damage.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!!!" I say, summoning seven giant hands with each one firing a beam of energy. Jevil is visibly hurt, but he continues dancing as if nothing happened. "HU-HA!!" He laughs. "I NEVER HAD SUCH FUN, FUN!!"

Jevil begins to hurl more bombs at us, this time releasing omnidirectional frag grenade-like explosions of spades. I start to teleport between the attacks and then summon my hands again. This time the hands converge together without changing colors and fire a concentrated rainbow beam that turns into an energy ball, homes on Jevil and explodes, creating a multitude of smaller energy balls that all home on him and hit him again.

"A BEAUTY IS JOYING IN MY HEART!" Laughs Jevil, as black clubs similar to Clover's start appearing around me and firing their bullets much faster than Clover did. I block them with a pink shield and then summon four HATE tentacles and whip them at Jevil. "EVEN DEVILSKNIFE IS SMILING!" He says, still smiling, as he turns into a scythe again in a repeat of another previous attack - except this time, a larger red scythe appears in addition to the smaller ones and attacks me directly. I morph my hands into scythes of my own and clash with Jevil's, and this time only the red scythe lands any hits on me. Then, I charge both of my scythe-arms with HATE and fire an X-shaped explosion slash at Jevil.

"IT'S SO EXCITING... I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!" Jevil begins to repeatedly blink around me with immense speed, firing a diamond bullet each time, and I return the favor and teleport out of each attack's way. "THIS IS IT, GIRLFREAK! SEE YA!" Says Jevil and returns to hurl bombs at me - bombs from every previous type, plus diamond bombs that fire three diamond bullets in a straight line. Many of the bombs do hit me, but they barely damage me.

"ENOUGH!! YOU KID TIRED ME UP!" Jevil groans and weakly waves his hand again, sending a slower and weaker wave of diamonds. "ABOUT TIME!!" I say, morphing my arm into a tentacle to impale Jevil. Before it can hit, he screams "KIDDING!! HERE'S MY FINAL CHAOS!" Jevil then turns into a scythe again and the whole area is darkened as scythes begin to fall out of the ceiling and explode, releasing upwards linear explosions. I frantically dodge each one of the scythe attacks before one, last, enormous scythe appears above me. I smirk and scream "RHABDOPHOBIA!!" Just as the area returns to normal and hurl Jevil's own scythe at him. The scythe explodes, but after the blast is cleared, Jevil is still there dancing around so fast that he's leaving blurred afterimages. "THIS BODY CANNOT BE KILLED!" He boasts as he starts to hurl yet more chaos bombs at me. I let them hit only to heal just as fast.

"So your body cannot be killed?" I ask with a crazed smile. "But what about... Your SOUL?" Saying this, I conjure my spear and impale Jevil, fishing out his empty soul and swallowing it. Jevil's body instantly fades, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

A second later, I find myself in the room outside Jevil's cell, and the cell itself is gone.

Now that Jevil is out of the way, there's only one thing left undone...


	19. Gallery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jevil has been defeated, and the one Hero of Light still standing is making her way towards the final challenge. With one hero wielding the strength of everyone, who will stand at the top of this final challenge?

Jevil and his room are gone, as if they were never there. However, I still have his soul within myself. With it, I go up the stairs and take an elevator to the first floor of Card Castle. From there, I ride another elevator to the top floor and go straight ahead, past the room where I killed K. Round and Rouxls Kaard. I've fused with Kumu again - I'm still not sure how to feel about that.

At the end of the room, which I haven't seen yet, is another staircase. Above it is a large throne room filled with riches, but the throne, wall banners and floor seem to have been damaged, most likely in a fight. The throne is spade-shaped, much like Lancer. The King is his father, so it's kind of a given.

Outside the throne room is a short corridor filled with white candles, and on the other side is the roof. Unlike the castle interior, it is purple, and in its center is a large platform with a spade on it. On the platform is currently a large fat figure obscured by a long black cape. I quietly walk up to it, standing on the other side of the platform.

"Lancer... Should've been here." The King whispers. "I wondered where he was... What was taking him so long... To dispatch of the Lightners." He clenches his fist. "You... Killed him. Just like everyone else who has stood in your way up until now. But... I can see there's only one of you left. Your two pathetic friends have already perished, Lightner. You will be seeing them, very soon."

"We're going to see about that." I say with a crooked smile. "Kumu and Ralsei are not dead. They are part of me now. And I can already tell that you'd be willing to kill Lancer yourself without a second thought had he betrayed you."

"You think so?" The King growls. "Although you are a Lightner, I can tell there is great darkness in your soul. A darkness even blacker than the Fountain. A darkness that I will soon extinguish."

I summon a Chaos Saber in one hand and a dark blue rapier in the other. "And who are you to think you can defeat me when no one else could?"

"Heheh... Heheheheh..." Laughs the King. "To my people, I am a hero... To you?"

He step forward, revealing his true appearance to be near-identical to Lancer, but bigger and with a second mouth in his stomach.

"I'M THE BAD GUY!!!"

"You aren't the only one..." I say, too quietly for him to hear.

I am someone who was created to be a hero, the hero who will save Humanity from the Monsters. But they decided they don't need saving and branded me as the "bad guy".

But here, in this strange new world, I have the chance to become the hero I was meant to be. And it all culminates in this one final battle.

**Feared by Humans.**

**Hated by Monsters.**

**Loved by Darkners.**

**It seems my journey is finally over.**

**The King stands between me and the Absolute.**

**It is time I show him his place.**

**And if he wants to resist...**

**BRING.**

**IT.**

**ON.**


End file.
